Youth Sports: Supply. Demand. Access.
The fragmented world of youth sports presents challenges to both availability and affordability for kids and their families.
Child Development
The Benefits of Playing Multiple Sports
Originally posted in sports medicine weekly on March 2nd, 2020 Sports play an important role in many children’s developmental years. Participation in athletics can help children learn motor control, patience, teamwork, listening skills, and the benefits of hard work. In 2018, data shows 52 percent of kids aged 6 to 12 participated in team or …
‘Participation Trophies’ Are a Fake Crisis. Here’s the Real Problem for Youth Sports.
A proposed ban on hardware hits North Carolina, ignoring a far bigger issue
The Value of Avoiding Travel Sports at a Young Age
Soccer star Alex Morgan encourages children to avoid specializing in one sport at a young age & recgonizes the blaue of avoiding travel sports.
For Brazil’s Soccer Stars, Careers Often Begin On Makeshift Fields
The road to World Cup glory in Brazil doesn’t start in fancy soccer clubs or private schoolyards. It often begins in places like this poor neighborhood called Rio Pequeno in Sao Paulo and on a dirt lot, where a group of children are playing soccer.
Youth sports promise elite status, but they often feel like a marketing ploy
Originally posted in the Kansas Reflector as an opinion piece by Eric Thomas The Kansas State University men’s basketball team advanced to the Elite 8 last month before falling to tournament upstarts Florida Atlantic. For first-year coach Jerome Tang, the accomplishment was exceptional, especially for a team that had a losing record last year. In those ways, playing in …
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Health experts: It’s time for more high schools to budget money for athletic trainers
Originally posted on the Aspen Institute’s Project Play Page on April 3rd by Jon Solomon Consider how the American sport system typically functions in high schools. The school identifies an athletic director, whose budgetary expenses include coaches, uniforms, equipment, transportation, officials, and facility maintenance. “And after they’re done with all of that, they ask themselves …
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The Income Gap Is Becoming a Physical-Activity Divide
Originally published in the NYT on March 25th By Matt Richtel Nationwide, poor children and adolescents are participating far less in sports and fitness activities than their more affluent peers. Over the last two decades, technology companies and policymakers warned of a “digital divide” in which poor children could fall behind their more affluent peers …
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Why California Coaches Feel There Are Not Enough Athletic Facilities
Why Coaches Feel There Are Not Enough Athletic Facilities If you ask any coach in Northern California if they think that there are enough athletic facilities almost uniformly, the answer would be “no”; speaking as a former baseball coach that was the most consistent complaint among my fellow coaches. Based on our Northern California facility study, …
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My Daughter Quit Sports, and This Is What Youth Sports Parents Need To Know
Originally published in I love to watch you play by Asia Mape My daughter quit sports, and this is what youth sports parents need to know. This is my oldest daughter Piper, and yes, I got her permission to write this. She’s a water polo player. Well – she used to be. She dreamed of playing for …
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